Highlights of today’s history:

On April 5, 2010, an explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine near Charleston, West Virginia, killed 29 workers. In a televised rescue, 115 Chinese coal miners were freed after spending eight days trapped in a flooded mine, surviving an accident that killed 38.

To this date:

In 1621, the Mayflower left the colony of Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts for a month-long round trip to England.

In 1792, President George Washington launched his first veto, rejecting a measure by Congress to distribute representatives among states.

In 1887, in Tuscumbia, Alabama, teacher Anne Sullivan achieved a breakthrough when her 6-year-old deafblind student, Helen Keller, learned the meaning of the word “water” as spelled in the manual alphabet.

In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death after being sentenced in New York for conspiring to commit espionage for the Soviet Union.

In 1955, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill resigned from his post for health reasons. Democrat Richard J. Daley was first elected mayor of Chicago, defeating Republican Robert E. Merriam.

In 1976, reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes died in Houston at the age of 70.

In 1986, two US servicemen and a Turkish woman were killed in the bombing of a West Berlin nightclub, an incident that sparked an American air raid on Libya more than a week later.

In 1987, Fox Broadcasting Co. made its prime-time television debut by airing the sitcom “Married with Children” followed by “The Tracey Ullman Show,” then repeating the first two episodes two more times. in the same evening.

In 1991, former Senator John Tower, R-Texas, his daughter Marian, and 21 others were killed in a commuter plane crash near Brunswick, Georgia.

In 1997 Allen Ginsberg, the convention-shattering counterculture guru as the Beat Generation poet laureate, died in New York City at age 70.

In 2015, Rolling Stone magazine apologized and officially withdrew its discredited article on an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia.

In 2019, while inspecting a renovated section of fence at the Mexican border in California, President Donald Trump declared that “our country is full” and that illegal crossings must be stopped.

Ten years ago: Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo (loh-RAHN ‘BAHG’-boh) remained locked in a bunker inside the presidential residence, defiantly claiming that he had won an election four months earlier even as troops supporting the international recognized winner surrounded the house. (Gbagbo was arrested six days later.) Texas A&M won their first national women’s basketball championship with a 76-70 victory over Notre Dame.

Five years ago: The leak of millions of offshore account records took its first high-profile political victim when Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson stepped down. Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant signed a law allowing religious groups and private businesses to deny services to gay and transgender people. R&B singer-songwriter Leon Haywood, 74, has died in Los Angeles. UConn won an unprecedented fourth consecutive women’s national championship, capping another perfect season by putting Syracuse 82-51.

A year ago: Surgeon General Jerome Adams told CNN the coming week will be “the most difficult and saddest week in the lives of most Americans” due to the growing toll from the coronavirus; Hours later, President Donald Trump took on a more optimistic tone, saying, “We’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was admitted to a hospital for testing as he continued to suffer from symptoms 10 days after being diagnosed with COVID-19. Federal officials said a tiger at the Bronx Zoo in New York City tested positive for the coronavirus, in what was believed to be the first known infection in an animal in the United States; the tiger was reportedly infected by a zoo employee.

Today, film producer Roger Corman is 95 years old. Former US Secretary of State and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell is 84 years old. Country singer Tommy Cash is 81 years old. Actor Michael Moriarty is 80 years old. Pop singer Allan Clarke (The Hollies) is 79 years old. Writer-director Peter Greenaway is 79 years old. Actor Max Gail is 78 years old. Actor Jane Asher is 75 years old. Singer Agnetha (ag-NEE’-tah) Faltskog (ABBA) is 71 years old. Actor Mitch Pileggi is 69 years old. Singer-songwriter Peter Case is 67 years old. Hip-hop artist / actor Christopher “Kid” Reid is 57 years old. Rock musician Mike McCready (Pearl Jam) is 55 years old. Singer Paula Cole is 53 years old. Actor Krista Allen is 50 years old. Actor Victoria Hamilton is 50 years old. Country singer Pat Green is 49 years old. Rapper-producer Pharrell (fa-REHL ‘) Williams is 48 years old. Rapper / producer Juicy J is 46 years old. Actor Sterling K. Brown is 45 years old. Country singer-musician Mike Eli (The Eli Young Band) is 40 years old. Actor Hayley Atwell is 39 years old. Actor Lily James is 32 years old.